First Woman Census Director Bryant '47 Remembered as Pioneer

By AIMÉE EICHER Sun Assistant Managing Editor

Barbara Everitt Bryant ’47 fulfilled many roles throughout her lifetime — Cornell student, mother, friend and, notably, first woman director of the United States Census Bureau.

Following her passing on March 3 at age 96, Bryant’s former colleagues and friends shared praises and stories of her accomplishments.

“I am sad to share the news of the passing of Barbara Everitt Bryant, former director of the U.S. Census Bureau and the first woman to hold that office, at age 96,” wrote current Census Director Robert Santos in a blog post on March 3. “Dr. Bryant was a trailblazer and a champion of quality survey methods.”

Bryant is survived by her three children, as well as her eight grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.

Bryant was born on April 5, 1926 in Ann Arbor, Michigan. She went on to study physics at Cornell — the same school her parents, 1920 graduate William L. Everitt and 1923 graduate Dorothy Wallace, also attended — with hopes of becoming a science writer.

After earning her B.A., she served as an editor for McGraw Hill’s “Chemical Engineering” magazine in 1947 before becoming a science journalist for the University of Illinois in 1948.

In 1949, Bryant decided to leave the workforce. She started a family with her husband, John H. Bryant, with whom she remained married for 48 years.

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